Political Quotes

Edmund Burke: “To avoid the perfections of extreme, all its several parts are so constituted as not alone to answer their own several…”

On the record
To avoid the perfections of extreme, all its several parts are so constituted as not alone to answer their own several ends, but also each to limit and control the others; insomuch that, take which of the principles you please, you will find its operation checked and stopped at a certain point.
Said by
Edmund Burke

Editor's note · Context

Burke describes how the various parts of the government are structured to limit each other's powers.

Share

More from Edmund Burke

Jan 1, 1790

Our people will find employment enough for a truly patriotic, free, and independent spirit, in guarding what they possess from violation.

gutenberg.org
Jan 1, 1790

I think our happy situation owing to our Constitution,--but owing to the whole of it, and not to any part singly,--owing in a great measure to what we have left standing in our several reviews and reformations, as well as to what we have…

gutenberg.org
Jan 1, 1790

The improvements of the National Assembly are superficial, their errors fundamental.

gutenberg.org
Jan 1, 1790

But when the leaders choose to make themselves bidders at an auction of popularity, their talents, in the construction of the state, will be of no service.

gutenberg.org

Other voices in this conversation